The present invention relates generally to video games, and more particularly to video games making use of real world location information.
Video games provide a source of entertainment for many. Video games often provide an interactive activity that can be interesting and challenging, and may allow game players to engage in simulated activities that may otherwise be unavailable. In doing so, some video games may provide a high degree of realism, with rapidly evolving action and associated stunning visual displays.
In providing that realism, some such video games may rely on, or in some cases even require, computer equipment with processing power sufficient to render at approximately real-time rates large and detailed visual action, and displays sufficiently large to display the visual action in an immersive manner. Such computer equipment may be available at a game player's home or other location. Unfortunately, the use of such equipment may lack interaction with the broader physical world, particularly for video game play centered about a specialized video game device or general purpose computer configured to provide video game play.
Some video games are available for use on mobile devices. The mobile devices may be convenient for a game player to carry on his or her person while traveling about, and may allow for a level of interaction with the physical world, for example due to location sensing capability of the mobile device. Mobile devices, however, may lack the graphic processing capabilities used in other less-mobile applications, and screen size may be limited for mobile applications.